Thursday, November 8, 2007

On Monday, November 12, Melissa Fitzgerald (C'87), former West Wing star and her good West Wing pal Allison Janney will be coming to Philly for a special fundraiser reception.

As reported here, Melissa is helping to bring attention to Uganda through Voices of Uganda, a documentary she produced about a unique theater program from Los Angeles traveling to northern Uganda to work with youths who have been affected by 21 years of civil war.

Per Pennathletics.com, “Penn will play on the ESPN family of networks four times during the course of the season, highlighted by its national telecast on ESPN2 when North Carolina comes to The Palestra on Tuesday, Dec. 4. In addition, the Quakers’ Big 5 game at Villanova (Dec. 1) will air on ESPN360; their Ivy game at home with Yale (Feb. 16) will air live on ESPN Classic; and their season-ending contest at Princeton (March 11) will be televised on ESPNU.

As part of the Ivy League’s television package with the YES Network, Penn’s contest at Yale (Feb. 29) will air live to a nationwide audience.”

So what happens when you graduate from a performing arts group like Mask and Wig and group members want to continue writing and performing together?

Through the years out here in Los Angeles, there's been a small contingency of Mask and Wiggers that have continued performing sketch comedy. Some, like myself, Todd Lieberman, Norm Golightly and Brian Yanish tried to resurrect working together again in a group called Minus Ten. That lasted for one show and that was that. It was a good try though...

Others have been more persistent and successful with performing sketch comedy.

Take Mask and Wig alumni Gary Lundy (C'05), Spencer Crawford (C'05), Ryan Baber (C'02), Tom Christensen (W'03), Joel Rubin (C'03), and Gabe Laskin (C'05). They have started a group called Danish Rhythm and in addition to a stage show over a year ago, they are now devoted to making original comedic short films. And let me say they've got some smart, irreverent comedy, with some unique Mask and Wig flavor (as you'll see in the Fosse video below).

Monday, November 5, 2007

Having begun in June 2007, Ananda has been releasing, free for download, one new song every week for fifty-two weeks! Pretty ambitious!

Per Ananda, "by sharing new music with the world on a weekly basis, he hopes that listeners will feel engaged with his music in a way that the traditional route of releasing an album every two years does not allow."

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Elizabeth Banks (C'96) looking fantastic at this past Saturday's premiere of Fred Claus at the Graumann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The film opens this Thursday, November 9. (photo credit: from imnotobsessed.com)

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